Facebook names 1st woman to board

NEW YORK -- Facebook has named its No. 2 executive, Chief Operating Officer Sheryl Sandberg, to its board of directors.

Sandberg, who joined Facebook from Google in 2008, is the first woman on Facebook's board of directors. People had called for the company to add a woman to its board ahead of its initial public offering of stock in mid-May.

Sandberg, 42, joins CEO Mark Zuckerberg, Netflix chief Reed Hastings and entrepreneurs Marc Andreessen, James Breyer and Peter Thiel. Also on the board are Donald Graham, CEO of The Washington Post Co., and Erskine Bowles, president emeritus of the University of North Carolina system.

Sandberg's appointment is somewhat symbolic. Zuckerberg controls Facebook and its board through more than half of its voting stock.